Published 4:00 am, Friday, July 22, 2005

Photo: Katy Raddatz

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SHOWN: The new International Hotel, also known as the I-Hotel, at 848 Kearny St. in San Francisco (it's the pale-colored building second from left). The I-Hotel, also known as the International Hotel, in Chinatown, has been rebuilt. The original hotel, a 3-story building, was shut down in 1977 after eight years of its residents fighting eviction. On August 4, 1977, San Francisco police under the direction of then-sheriff Richard Hongisto, evicted about 50 elderly residents. The hotel was razed 2 years later. Photo taken on 7/17/05, in San Francisco, CA.
By Katy Raddatz / The San Francisco Chronicle less

SHOWN: The new International Hotel, also known as the I-Hotel, at 848 Kearny St. in San Francisco (it's the pale-colored building second from left). The I-Hotel, also known as the International Hotel, in ... more

Photo: Katy Raddatz

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SHOWN: The new International Hotel, also known as the I-Hotel, at 848 Kearny St. in San Francisco. The I-Hotel, also known as the International Hotel, in Chinatown, has been rebuilt. The original hotel, a 3-story building, was shut down in 1977 after eight years of its residents fighting eviction. On August 4, 1977, San Francisco police under the direction of then-sheriff Richard Hongisto, evicted about 50 elderly residents. The hotel was razed 2 years later. Photo taken on 7/17/05, in San Francisco, CA.
By Katy Raddatz / The San Francisco Chronicle less

SHOWN: The new International Hotel, also known as the I-Hotel, at 848 Kearny St. in San Francisco. The I-Hotel, also known as the International Hotel, in Chinatown, has been rebuilt. The original hotel, a ... more

Photo: Katy Raddatz

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I-HOTEL 1/29JUL97/MN/BW--A view of the site of the old International Hotel at Jackson and Kearny Streets. Nothing has been built on the site in twenty years since it was torn down. By Brant Ward/Chronicle

I-HOTEL 1/29JUL97/MN/BW--A view of the site of the old International Hotel at Jackson and Kearny Streets. Nothing has been built on the site in twenty years since it was torn down. By Brant Ward/Chronicle

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PROTESTORS IN FRONT OF THE INTERNATIONAL HOTEL ON KEARNY STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO'S CHINATOWN LOCK ARMS TO PREVENT SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES FROM EVICTING TENANTS ON AUGUST 4, 1977. PHOTO BY NANCY WONG, SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE. less

PROTESTORS IN FRONT OF THE INTERNATIONAL HOTEL ON KEARNY STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO'S CHINATOWN LOCK ARMS TO PREVENT SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES FROM EVICTING TENANTS ON AUGUST 4, 1977. PHOTO BY NANCY WONG, SPECIAL TO THE ... more

As he walked up the stairwell of the new International Hotel, four decades of struggle came flooding back to Bill Sorro.

Sorro, vice president of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, cried at the memory of more than 50 Asian immigrants, mostly elderly male former farm workers from the Philippines, being evicted from the original "I-Hotel" in 1977. The deteriorating single-room occupancy hotel was razed two years later to make way for a commercial development that never materialized.

On Aug. 26, nearly 26 years later, 104 studio and one-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors are scheduled to open at 848 Kearny St., at Jackson Street, the same address of the original building. Handicapped-accessible with roomy bathrooms and kitchenettes, the units are vastly better than the crowded 10-by-10 rooms of the old building.

"If those tenants could see what has gone up in their old home, they would feel justified for their fight, the sacrifices that they made," said Sorro, a hotel resident from 1970-75 whose foundation worked with developers to incorporate the original tenants' history in the new structure.

"For each floor, there were two toilets and one shower, which we couldn't use a lot of the times because it often backed up," he said. "You come (to the new units) and say, 'Wow! Look at all this beautiful space.' "

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who as mayor in 1979 formed an advisory committee that advocated for affordable senior housing on the site, is scheduled to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremonies. All the mayors who served since the evictions -- Art Agnos, Frank Jordan, Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom -- are among the invited guests.

Sorro said about seven of the evicted residents will be there, too.

The Chinese Community Development Center, the property management group that coordinated construction, has received more than 750 applications. The deadline for applications is today. Former residents have first dibs on rooms in the residence.

No more than two people can live in each unit; the head of household must be at least 62 years old; and the total household income cannot exceed $45,250 for two people, $39,600 for one.

A lottery will be held to determine the list of tenants.

The 15-story building's top floors afford views of some of the city's best-known landmarks -- North Beach and Coit Tower to the north, the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island to the east, the Transamerica Pyramid and the Financial District to the south and Chinatown to the west.

"They rival those seen from some of the million-dollar condos in the city, " said Forrest Gok, a representative of the building's property management group.

The building includes a 2,400-square-foot, ground-floor community and activity center, which will be run by Sorro's foundation. The center will pay tribute to the original I-Hotel residents with a learning center, a small bookstore, a performance stage and displays, including archival pictures of the first I-Hotel and "Manilatown," the unofficial name of the 10-block corridor of Kearny Street from California Street to Columbus Avenue that was the center of activity for Northern California's Filipino American community during the first half of the 20th century.

At its peak in the 1920s and 1930s, Manilatown was the off-season home to about 20,000 Filipino immigrants, many of whom worked seasonal jobs in farms, canneries and factories. Filipino-owned restaurants, barber shops, pool halls and other businesses in the neighbored catered to them.

By the 1960s, the Financial District had taken over much of Manilatown, and the three-story I-Hotel became its last reminder.

In 1968, the I-Hotel's new owners decided to replace it with a more profitable high-rise.

The owners first handed out eviction notices the following year, but the Asian American community rallied around the tenants and dragged the case through the courts for eight years and an ownership change.

In 1977, a judge sided with the owners and ordered the tenants out. More than 5,000 protesters surrounded the hotel in the early morning hours but were unable to stop the 300 police officers and sheriff's deputies charged to carry out the evictions.

In 1994, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese purchased the property to relocate its earthquake-damaged St. Mary's School from Broadway and sold the property management group the rights to build the I-Hotel at the corner of Kearny and Jackson streets. The new school will be built next door to the senior housing.

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